by Barbara RossPosted on October 9, 2024October 8, 2024
by Barb–fall in New England, got to love it
Wickeds, tell us about a movie that scared the bejesus out of you. I know some of you don’t like horror movies–not that your answer has to be horror–but it could be the movie that convinced you the genre wasn’t for you.
Edith/Maddie: I have an image of a terrifying show from my childhood – maybe the last Twilight Zone I watched before my mother forbade it? – where the aliens that had gotten into people’s bodies started coming out of their mouths as snakes or worms or something. STILL gives me the creeps. In recent years, I had to stop watching the second season of Dark Winds. I am a huge Tony Hillerman fan, but that horrible killer in season two, who kept escaping and was so awful and destructive and menacing and was after my man, Joe Leaphorn (and all the other good guys)? Too scary for this girl.
Liz: The first Halloween movie scared the CRAP out of me when I was a kid. Michael Meyers still gives me the creeps and I love scary movies!
Sherry: The Shining is the last scary movie I watched. I get the chills when I get any reminder of it. I’ll never forget Jack Nicholson hacking through the door and saying, “Here’s Johnny.” I can’t even stand watching commercials for scary movies and spend a lot of October changing channels to avoid creepy commercials.
Edith: Sherry, I should have led with The Shining! I saw it in 1980 and still shudder when I think of it.
Julie: Liz, I saw Halloween in college. Actually I saw my coat over my head, and heard the Star Spangled Banner, which I always hum while putting my fingers in my ears. I don’t like horror. The movie Poltergeist scared me a lot. Not sure if that’s horror, but it is really scary. Can’t say if it hold up because I’ll never watch it again.
Barb: Sherry and Edith, I would have to put The Shining on my list, too. The only time I remember screaming out loud–involuntarily, it just came out– in a theater full of people was watching The Haunting with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom, the first movie made from Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House. I was in college, in very gothic theater, which probably didn’t help. It must have been about ten years after the movie came out. I haven’t seen it since but still remember little moving images from it.
Jessie: I cannot remember the name of any off the top of my head, but like many teenagers, I remember sleepovers with friends where we watched at least one every time we got together. Nowadays, I prefer a straight-up murder mystery without too many horror elements!
Readers: How about you? Do you like scary movies? Scariest one you ever saw?
Published by Barbara Ross
Barbara Ross is the author of twelve Maine Clambake Mystery novels and six novellas. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.comView all posts by Barbara Ross
When I was younger, I loved horror movies, now, not so much. SHINING would be at the top of my list of scariest movies followed by PSYCHO.
Loading...
Reply
The Shining and Psycho are both great ones.
Loading...
Reply
I’ve always liked horror movies, but not the slasher ones. Halloween was by far the most terrifying movie to me, the music alone puts me on edge!
Loading...
Reply
The music and sound effects are important in all movies but somehow even more important in horror movies.
Loading...
Reply
Believe it or not, I have no use for scary movies. Well, of the horror genre that is. The last horror movie I saw was Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. I just don’t have the desire for a high body count that comes with a serial killer that is unkillable I guess.
Give me an action movie with lots of people dying and I’m fine. And I’d rather be jump-scared by a killer in a suspenseful movie than some torture porn type of movie like the Saw movies or something.
See Also'Joker: Folie à Deux' Has a Message for Fans: Go F-ck Yourselves‘I could not get through the script without crying’: Adrien Brody talks to the death row survivor who he’s playing on the London stageHills resident battling for bushfire bunker approval fears he'll be 'forced to remove' shelterMarital rape is still not outlawed in India. Changing that would be ‘excessively harsh,’ government argues | CNNOf course, my best friend Ann LOVES horror movies and she is currently watching one a day for the month of October
Loading...
Reply
Wow. Ann needs to share her watch list. I agree with you about serial killers. I avoid them in books and movies.
Loading...
Reply
Barbara, I don’t mind serial killer stories themselves. But it is just the horror movie aspect turning them into unstoppable unkillable supernatural beings committing torture porn that turns me off.
Loading...
As a child, I had two that scared me for years. The first one I don’t even know the name of. Years ago they had Friday night movies. It was the only time my brother and I were allowed to stay up later. In the movie the cyclops monster was walking out of the sea when an actual earthquake hit. It was the first one we felt after moving to the CA coastline. Between the both scared us both immensely and didn’t watch the Friday night movie for a long time. The second was the movie The Birds. For years I was scare of any accumulation of birds over 2. Funny now since I spend hours on end trying to capture them with my camera. Never have really cared for scary horror or sci-fi movies. I generally just avoid them.
2clowns at arkansas dot netLoading...
Reply
Oh, yes, The Birds is terrifying! Hitchcock was a master at that.
Loading...
Reply
I’m not a bird fan. In general, things flying around my head is a no-no.
Loading...
Reply
I had to answer this one! It was “Night of the Living Dead” the original black & white movie, I saw it in an old spooky theater as a Halloween special. My boyfriend at the time, went out to the restroom, and when he came back he snuck up behind me and said “boo”! I screamed and everyone in the audience screamed! I will never forget how scared I was, ha ha!
Loading...
Reply
Oh my gosh that is terrifying. Funny in retrospect but it must have been terrifying in the moment.
Loading...
Reply
I like the monster movies of classic cinema and love a Gothic or haunted house story. I remember watching the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the theater. It left me freaked out for weeks. More recently, The Blair Witch Project scared the snot out of me.
Loading...
Reply
The Blair Witch Project made me dizzy and nauseous. Not that handheld camera technique is common–but back then…
Loading...
Reply
Happy Wednesday dear friends! I have been movie buff all my life, and used to love scary movies, but as I “matured”, I no longer need that kind of adrenaline overflow, so I don’ do scary or gory any longer. What did it for me was the first ALIEN movie, when the alien came out of the closet…I mean the chest…When I say that I avoid gory movies, I am reminded that I got hooked on watching SILENT WITNESS on Britbox in recent weeks. I am in the middle of Season 11 (of 27), and there is a lot of blood and gore in it, as the pathologists disect cadavers. It seems that as the seasons progress, they are showing more details of body parts..yet, I am in it till the end 🙂 I do prefer mystery movies with minimal blood and gore. JOY! Luis at ole dot travel
Loading...
Reply
Luis, Bill and I watched ALl of Silent Witness during the pandemic and have kept up with new seasons as they’ve dropped. Though I don’t like the new seasons as much as the middle ones, they are still good television.
Loading...
Reply
I don’t like horror. I saw twenty minutes of “The Exorcist” in college and left the room. Hulu is doing a whole “Huluween” thing with scary movies. I saw the ad and said, “I’m out.” Comic scary is fine, but not serious horror.
Oddly enough, Hitchcock doesn’t bother me though. He’s more suspense to me than scary. That I can do just fine.
Loading...
Reply
I appreciate your distinction between scary and suspense.
Loading...
Reply
As I’ve said before, I have a love/hate relationship with slasher movies. I go through phases where I watch them and then get sick of them. I usually watch the original Halloween during October (although I may not have time this year), and I am obsessed with the Scream franchise.
Loading...
Reply
This sounds a little more like love than hate to me.
Loading...
Reply
There are other franchises I will watch and then get really burned out by them. I just named the ones I do enjoy.
Loading...
The Haunting did it for me. The moodiness, the scene in the library ….. . I tried watching it a couple years ago and couldn’t do it. Give me Casper instead.
Loading...
Reply
That’s what’s needed–a friendly ghost.
Loading...
Reply
I had seen a few good (and not scary, just suspenseful, as Liz says) Hitchcock movies when I went, all unsuspecting, to see Psycho and found it very creepy. Since then I think the best “scary” but not horrifying movie I’ve seen is The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis.
Loading...
Reply
I LOVE the Sixth Sense.
Loading...
Reply
I have never been a fan of horror movies. Being scared is just not my thing, give me a good mystery anytime. I saw the Exorcist and expected to not sleep, but the only movie that ever gave me nightmares was The Stepford Wives…too creepy for words! BTW, I loved the Sixth Sense as well, Barb!
Loading...
Reply
The Stepford Wive–so creepy!
Loading...
Reply
The first movie I ever saw was A Christmas Carol when I was seven. I went with some neighborhood kids to our neighborhood theater. The ghosts scared me to death. Since then I’ve never liked scary movies. I only read cozy mysteries, nothing scary.
Loading...
Reply
I like the way in a Christmas Carol in some versions the ghosts are scary, some are lovable, some are so human. It’s one of the great things about the story.
Loading...
Reply
Back in the dark ages when drive-in movies were king, so-called scary movies were really just campy monster films. I loved them. Then came the slasher movies and all the rest. Nope. Not for me. I don’t find being made uncomfortable enjoyable. I’ll stick with cozies every time.
Loading...
Reply
At the drive in the scary movies were really just an excuse for the couples to cling together.
Loading...
Reply
Yep! I said I loved them. 😉
Loading...
I’m not a huge fan of scary movies and rarely watch them, but I did watch The Others with Nicole Kidman. It’s an excellent ghost story and quite creepy and I highly recommend it.
Loading...
Reply
I used to love scary movies and scary books. Not anymore. “The Exorcist,” “It,” and all of the above-mentioned ones I do not want to watch anymore. I stopped liking them before the Texas Chainsaw, Freddy Kruger and all of the recent ones came out luckily. The other day though my husband had one on called “Jeepers Creepers” from 2001 and I watched it. Heaven forbid. I just looked it up and there are 4 of them. Yuck! Whenever I think about that movie, I get scared. I hate thinking about it. I can’t even hear that old song “Jeepers Creepers” as it reminds me of the movie. Ugh!
Loading...
Reply